Digital State of Canadian Home Builders 2026: 153 Websites Scored

Buyers spend months choosing a builder, and most of that time is spent on your website. So we tested 153 of them. We picked builders at random from the Canadian Home Builders' Association member directory, from every province, and checked each home page the way a buyer sees it: on a phone.

Each website got a score out of 100, in six plain categories. Here is how the industry did, where builders lose buyers, and the fixes that move a website up a grade.

How we scored each website

Every website was tested the same way, on the same day, with the same tools. The score is out of 100, and the grades work like school: 90 and up is an A, under 60 is an F.

Most builder websites score a D or an F

The average builder website scored 56.3 out of 100, an F. The middle website scored 57. Only 4 of 153 earned a B, and none earned an A. 136 of 153 scored a D or an F.

Where builders lose the most points

Builder websites mostly work on a phone. Where they fall down is the part that turns a visitor into a call: making it easy to get in touch, and showing proof.

What the best builder websites do differently

The top quarter of websites averaged 70.4; the bottom quarter averaged 42.6. The biggest gaps weren't speed or design. They were contact and proof: a phone number and a quote button up top, and reviews on the page.

What this means for builders: the gap between a D and a B is mostly free to close. Moving your phone number and a quote button into the first screen and adding reviews to the home page are an afternoon of work for most websites.

Speed: how fast do builder websites load on a phone?

Builder websites are slow on phones. On Google's own speed test, the middle builder website scored 57 out of 100, and only 5% scored 90 or more, the "good" mark. The main picture on the home page took 12.1 seconds to show on a test phone; Google counts 2.5 seconds or less as good, and only 2% of builder websites got there.

What this means for builders: the usual cause is huge photos and videos at the top of the page. Builders' best asset, their photos, is what slows the site down. Resize photos before they go on the website, and don't autoplay a full video on phones. You can test your own website free with Google PageSpeed Insights.

Contact: can a buyer reach you from their phone?

Most builder websites have a contact form, but on a phone, the way to reach the builder is often hidden. Only 19% showed a phone number without scrolling, and 41% had a contact or quote button in the first screen. 44% had no tap-to-call phone number anywhere on the home page.

What this means for builders: put your phone number in the header on phones, make it tap-to-call, and add one clear button, like "Book a consultation", above the fold. Keep the form short: the middle builder form had 5 fields, and 12% asked for more than 8. In our survey of 1,113 homeowners, "an easy way to get in touch" was the thing that made a contractor's website most trustworthy.

Proof: do builder websites show buyers they can be trusted?

Builders are good at showing their homes: 82% have a gallery or project photos. They're much worse at showing what other buyers say. Only 39% show reviews or testimonials on the home page, and only 7% mention their new home warranty there (16% at least link to it).

What this means for builders: new homes in most provinces come with a warranty by law, like Tarion in Ontario, BC Housing's home warranty insurance in BC, Alberta's new home warranty and Manitoba's. Saying who your warranty is with costs nothing and answers a buyer's biggest fear. And show reviews: reviews are the first thing 87% of homeowners check. See how many reviews you need.

Phones: do builder websites work on a phone?

This is where builders do best. Almost every website fits a phone screen without sideways scrolling. The weak spots are small text on 28% of websites and buttons too small to tap comfortably on about half.

Google: can Google tell what you build and where?

Google reads your page title, your main heading and your structured data to understand your business. Only 44% of builder home pages had exactly one main heading: 35% had none, and 22% had several. Only 42% named their city or region in the title or main heading, and 24% used local business structured data.

What this means for builders: give your home page one main heading that says what you build and where, like "Custom home builder in Kelowna", and use the same words in the page title. These are some of the cheapest fixes on this list. Our local SEO and Google Business Profile pages explain the rest.

Accessibility: can everyone use builder websites?

46% of builder websites had at least one critical accessibility error, and 87% had at least one serious one, using axe-core, the open-source test most audits use. The most common problems were links and buttons with no readable name and text that's hard to read against its background.

What this means for builders: accessibility is also good business: older buyers, and anyone reading on a phone in the sun, need readable text and clear buttons. In Ontario, the AODA sets accessibility rules for many businesses' websites.

What else builders put on their websites

Few builders show prices (11%), even though price is one of the first things buyers want to know. Floor plans or show homes appear on 29%, video on 29%, and online booking on just 7%.

What this means for builders: a "homes from" price filters out people who aren't in your budget before they call, and a way to book a consultation online catches buyers who browse at night. If you run ads, make sure the Google Ads tag and Meta pixel are on your site, or you can't tell which ads sold homes.

Which website platforms do builders use?

Half of builder websites run on WordPress. The platform matters less than how it's set up: there were fast and slow websites on every platform.

Builders by region

Scores were close in every region. There's no part of the country where builder websites are much better or worse.

How to move your website up a grade

These ten fixes are what separate the top quarter from the bottom. Most cost little or nothing. If you'd rather have it done for you, see how we market home builders and the websites we build.